Sagar
Pandey, Salman Khan’s body double, passed away around 1 p.m. on Friday, September
30 in Mumbai following a sudden heart attack. “Sagar was working in the gym
when he suddenly collapsed. He was taken to Hindu Hriday samrat Balasaheb
Thackerey trauma care municipal hospital at Jogeshwari East, Mumbai. That’s
where he was declared dead”, Shahrukh Khan’s body double Prashant Walde told
Bollywood Hungama. Appearing for the first time as Salman’s body double in Kuch
Kuch Hota Hain (1998), Sagar claimed to have done the same in over 50 films
which includes blockbuster films such as Dabanng (2010), Dabangg 2 (2012),
Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Tubelight (2017), Dabanng 3 (2019) etc. He was around 50 years of age.

Also Read: Who was Sagar Pandey?

Sagar hails
from Pratapgarh in UP. Being a theatre actor, Sagar had rough days in the
industry before he found a footing as Salman Khan’s lookalike. In an interview
with ABP news in 2020, Sagar spoke at length about the fate of body doubles in
the Bollywood film industry. “ There are roughly 150 body doubles in Bollywood
of different levels but all are virtually jobless for roughly 8 months post
summer” Sagar said in the course of the interview, stating that it forces the
artists to depend on stage shows to earn their bread. He explained that the
onslaught of Covid-19 in Early 2020 completely disrupted this routine as almost
all stage shows got cancelled in that period. It plunged several such artists
to destitution and a battle for survival.

Also Read: Youngsters rush to get hearts checked after Puneeth Rajkumar’s sudden death

Body
doubles are artists who substitute film stars in such a way that their faces
are not shown on camera. The face of the body double is obscured to create an
illusion that they are the same as the star. Not only is it essential for a
body double to be a look-alike of an actor but they must also maintain almost
the same physique and mannerisms as the them. While body doubles are more often
than not mere shadows of their respective stars, they have also occasionally
had their time under the sun as for example in, Ramgarh ki Sholay (1991) which
starred lookalikes of Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, Govinda in lead roles.